areas. check it out online. encourage everybody to go to either sal vation army or citymeals.org. one of the biggest ports in the country opening for business again. we will take you out on the water as the ships start rolling in. will it all happen fast enough though to alleviate new york's gasoline crisis? it is getting worse by the minute. the lines are long and new yorkers known for their patience, not so much. tempers are getting short. when you give money to the recovery effort, where's it going? how do you know it's all going to the right place? sue's out today. michelle caruso-cabrera is with us. we're going to run you through with some video. help on the way from the west coast, from california. dozens of power trucks loaded on to giant air force cargo planes

to help with power restoration. those things amazingly flying across the country all the way from california. the situation remains desperate in many neighborhoods in the tri-state area. these are pictures from this morning on staten island. there is virtually no power on the island. destruction is widespread. the secretary of homeland security janet napolitano will visit today. staten island is where the new york marathon will start on sunday. more subway service returning to manhattan, but not below 42nd street where power is still out in wide parts of the city south of that parallel. city officials say they may have to evacuate the marine life from the massive new york city aquarium based in brooklyn. the death toll from the storm nearing the 100 mark. despite the damage in atlantic city, that town's famous casinos are open again and they are conflicting reports about when

power will be restored in manhattan. hundreds of thousands still in the dark but con ed hopes to have them back online this weekend. pse&g, new jersey's largest utility, still has 1 million customers without power. the company has 60 switching stations. workers have been scrambling to clean them up. a team at the essex switching station in newark has been working for 48 straight hours. it is painstaking work as you can see right there. >> to the lowest level they're taking every little screw out of a terminal strip, cleaning the terminal strip with a wire brush, cleaning the terminal on the end of the wire with a wire brush, spraying it with oil. spraying it down with oil, wiping it down and reattaching it. >> that's being repeated presumably thousands of times across the entire pse&g and other con ed systems.

they expect the station in essex to be back online today. >> michelle? we've seen these massive gasoline lines. gasoline prices at the wholesale level on trading floors falling today by nearly 2%. decline of more than 5 cents. that's because the department of homeland security suspended the jones act. the jones act states that only u.s. flagships can carry goods from one u.s. port to another. now it is suspended non-u.s. flagships can also help bring petroleum products to areas where they are needed. of course it will take a while still for long gasoline lines to get shorter. for days now drivers throughout the new york area have had a very hard time getting gasoline. lines are sometimes half a mile long. bertha coombs is on a tug in the harbor right now. that's going to be instrumental in getting more gasoline. but first, kate kelly has more on the port situation in bayonne, new jersey. kate? >> reporter: thanks so much, michelle. we're here right in new york harbor where things today are slowly coming back to life after nearly a week in which this

harbor was closed to marine vessels coming in and out. yesterday the coast guard opened this harbor for the first time in nearly a week. the port of new york and new jersey to boats with a special aim in mind, bringing gasoline and diesel to the city for much needed replenishment of empty fuel stations. there was an unflux of barges bringing petroleum products in the afternoon i'm told, followed by some additional traffic this morning. we're having a little bit of trouble. thank you very much, kate. now to bertha who's on a tugboat out in the water. bertha? >> reporter: thanks very much, michelle. we're on the other side of bayonne on the water. behind me is one of the largest terminals here. the intt bayonne terminal.

they do not have power. we spoke to pse&g. they still can't give us an estimate when power will return. this would normally be full of tankers offloading. in general there are some 15 tankers a day that come up this way. however, with no power, it is idle. we spoke with the ceo of bouchard transportation, one of the major barge and tanking companies here in the northeast. he says they are back with the harbor reopen at 40% or so capacity. they normally transport about 600,000 to 700,000 barrels a day of products here, diesel gasoline. but that has all been stopped. they are resuming power. they've been talking with the terminals. they've said by early next week that most of them will be back online here if they don't have major repairs to make. they expect that their own traffic will be up 90%. morton actually says that the oil companies are all working

together to try to get products out here. one of his tankers that was supposed to go up to albany, the client said can you divert that over to long island. where he is himself, he says he is down to a quarter-tank of gas. he was happy they are diverting that gasoline tanker over to there. the port on long island, the terminal is not reopened. they are waiting to see whether they'll get power to reopen there. they are trying to get this moving up not just here to the new york area but to the northeast because this is causing a big bottleneck. his reaction to the jones act being lifted, he said symbolically it is probably the right thing to do. it is going to take seven, eight days for some of the tankers to get there. by that time a lot of these facilities should be back online. but emotionally he says it's very hurtful because he worries that that's going to take some jobs away from u.s. maritime workers. >> bertha, thank you very much. for more on those awfully long lines and short fuses, the

weather channel's jim cantore is at a gas station in ridgefield, new jersey, just west of manhattan. hi, jim. >> reporter: hey, how you doing? this is actually coordinated pretty well. it's just a nice little thing we got going on here off of the turnpike. you can see these cars are waiting in line. what's happening, there is an officer right here pretty much telling everyone which lane to get in. and then they're coming from really the exit. this is about a half-mile long just up in here. you can see them kind of getting in line here. the wait is about an hour and a half. that's about how long people are waiting. unfortunately, we aren't allowed to walk up to them and talk to them in the cars. sunoco has asked us not to do that so we are respecting that so we can keep the live shot out through here. but guys, the scope of this problem is like this. you've got 50% of the gas stations in this area without power. that's the first thing. check them off. another 20% of them are now running out of gas. all right? check that off. really only 30% is left. with the kind of cars and volumes and population you have up in through here, it is no

wonder why we are seeing these kind of lines. this line last night was all the way out to the turnpike. there have been refilling tankers in here already. they're on the other side of that splund truck. but they were full so they dropped a ton of new gas into the tanks below so they can kind of keep this process going. gas is a hot commodity. i think the this whole thing is if we can get this power back on and we can really free up the gas situation because that 50% more gas stations now we can throw in to the mix. this is orderly, guys. you know, you've been hearing as well. it is getting a little chaotic in places. people are walking around with gas cans on two shoulders and another two this way, trying to get any gas they can. standing in lines maybe an hour, as long as two and a half at times. if you're out this way, again, in ridgefield, we're about an hour and a half in length as far

as the line is going. there's no chaos, at least from what we can see. >> i think you just nailed it there, jim, when you called it an orderly ordeal. that's exactly what it is. i assume not so much at that particular location given where it is. but as you mention, at a lot of places it's not just automobile traffic. it's people on foot, sort of the dispossessed coming up with their cans getting them filled. >> reporter: many of them have generators they want to operate. that's the key. so they're bringing the gas cans up. from are also limits to how much you can get. here you can fill the tank. everybody that's coming here can fill their tank as high as they want. i've even seen a couple of people with other gas cans strapped to their roof so they are adding that gas, too. everybody's trying to be considerate of somebody else. let's face it, if somebody drives in here with four or five gallon gas cans on their

vehicle, eventually -- let's just share the wealth. eventually we will run out of gas though unless other tankers come this way. >> i was up at 5:00 this morning, went 40 miles northwest of where i live in suburban new jersey and i finally did get some gas a little before 8:00 this morning. michelle? down to you. >> tyler, when he says it is an hour and half wait, guys here on the floor said, that's it? wow, that's great. that's the kind of situation it is. i want it show you an image that's really getting some people in new york riled up. the cover of the "new york post." on it -- two generators, huge generators. what are they being used for? to power the media center for this weekend's new york city marathon. despite the horrible power outages in the rest of the city. that race is on despite the destruction, despite the disruption. brian schactman is covering the controversy for us. brian? >> reporter: michelle, generators are 20 yards from where i'm standing right now. they're huping. there is actually a third one that's a back-up that's idle right now.

people that are against this race for those reasons, they're fuming. the race -- they're trying to counter that. they actually start the "race to recover" and pledged $2.5 million-plus to go toward recovery efforts. they're asking runners to donate $26.20. of course you get the symbolic stuff there towards the recovery efforts. as for those runners, we actually asked them with all the anger against this race being run, whether they were actually worried about mistreatment on sunday. >> i run new york city marathon for times so the crowd is great. everybody support the runners so we hope that this year should be the same good fiber and good energy, everything perfect. >> it wouldn't surprise me if there was a lot of that happening. they probably feel that the resources should be directed elsewhere. >> reporter: listen, it's

business as usual for the runners, especially those who came from outside of this country. overall the race is not business as usual and a lot of people think the mayor's office really pushed for this because there's about $340 million in economic impact here and thousands of people had already arrived in the city to run this race. back to you. >> thank you, brian. in fact, finance.yahoo.com, the website asking if you think the new york city marathon should run on. the results of their poll coming up. now to scott wapner with a "market flash" today. >> watching sharls es of penske. stronger than expected quarterly profit. shares are down 8% though, reason being -- gross margins were lower than expected and also vehicle pricing disappointed. when you read a little bit deeper in the earnings report, you find out some things that wall street doesn't exactly like. stock down 8%. >> big move there. thanks, scott. is the clean-up from sandy

rolls on, another storm headed toward the eastern seaboard. how bad is it going to be? the weather channel is tracking it for us next. plus, the political impact of the storm. it was foggy before. may be starting to get clearer now. from local communities to local businesses. the potential of yelp unlocked. nyse euronext. unlocking the world's potential. to a currency market for everyone. the potential of fxcm unlocked. nyse euronext. locking the world's potential.

in the first days after the storm, president obama toured the damage and received praise for his leadership. but as the gas lines grew and tempers got short, new damage uncovered could be images and headlines turn against him. john harwood is at an afl-cio phone bank where they are urging voters to get to the polls. governor christie seems deeply in command the way the federal government has stepped in to help. this is the third hurricane i've covered in my lifetime, andrew, katrina and now this. we are at the point where the population gets furious and they turn on the government. the government can just not handle the huge, huge logistical requirements that happen after a storm like this. could this actually turn on the president at some point here? >> reporter: i don't think so. i think what the president has had the opportunity to do is show americans that he was involved in an effort that the

country was rallying behind and do his job in a way that got praise by the keynote speaker at the republican convention, chris christie, very tough critic of the president otherwise. so i don't think many voters are going to blame president obama for what's going on right now, and leave aside the fact that the states in which the difficulties are occurring db new york, new jersey, connecticut are all reliantly democratic states. what is much more important to the outcome of this election, michelle, is what's going on behind me at this afl-cio phone bank where union volunteers are making calls, doing the painstaking work of identifying callers and getting them to the polls. the chamber of commerce told us they're making millions of phone calls in the final days. interest groups aligned with both campaigns are going to do this non-stop between now and tuesday. of course, many voters have already cast their ballots because of early voting in this country, michelle. but there's a lot of work left

to go. the candidates are sprinting and so are the volunteers. >> john, thank you very much. stay there because we're going to come back to you in just a moment. there is that other story that has big impact on the presidential race, and that's the jobs report that came out this morning. our senior economics reporter steve leisman is here now to discuss it. the numbers, the unemployment rate came in roughly where people thought it would. the job creation number was higher. >> we added revisions of 84k. that gives us a number to use for the job creation under president obama. i'm sure this will be part of the discussion. we added up the numbers. here they are under president obama. beginning in february '09, this is how republicans would look at it. 580,000. that's the right number, folks. another number out there is the wrong number. i talked to the senior in the division of labor statistics. some democrats say you can't blame obama for the first three months but it was a huge decline

before any of his policies took over. $2.1 million would be the number. if you take that out. congress says forget about democrat or republican, what about the cycle from the beginning of president obama's term through the trough in jobs that was minus 3.2 million, from the trough we're now plus 4.3 million. the time period over obama's presidency, ss aboit is about a. it is up a tick. it began at 7.8%, but all the way up to 10%, then a slow halting ride down. don't think these numbers will change anybody's point of view when it comes to the election but those are the numbers right now. >> mr. romney has been pointing out that the unemployment rate is higher -- by .01%. >> you say a war, it misses the whole story, the whole drama. >> john harwood, it feels to me

that we're going to spend most of the weekend in spin class, if you will, as both sides try and spin these numbers for their own purposes. >> well, i do think it is a little bit late for spin. i wouldn't -- i agree with steve, i don't think this report is a game changer, positive or negati negative, for the president. we've seen even before the last report when the jobless rate went down below 8% to 7.8%, it did not move the needle very much in terms of the presidential race. our country is very polarized. 90% of the people have already made up their mind who they are going to vote for. the idea we are recovering economically but very slowly in a manner in which there are millions of people still looking for jobs is baked in to everybody's expectations. i think this gives the president a grace note to close his campaign on, not likely to make a big difference. >> john harwood, thanks very much. steve, thank you as well. new york is known for having a big heart in times of crisis.

but wait until you see who's charging workers vacation time if they can't make it to work. that is coming up. and apple in correction territory as the ipad mini hits shelves today. jon fortt is live at an apple store in palo alto. jon? >> reporter: lines not as long as they would be for an iphone 1. some analysts thinking a million, a mall andillion and a for this launch weekend. more after the break. chances are, you're not made of money, so don't overpay for motorcycle insurance. geico, see how much you could save.

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welcome back to "power lunch." i'm scott wapner with a "market flash." we'll stay with our car theme. shares of avis are falling today, down 5%. the deal here, profits missed estimates. company also gave a forecast that was below wall street expectations. michelle, the problem here, like for many companies, remains europe. avis bought avis europe for more than $1 billion in 2011. bit of a problem there. you might have heard about it. >> oh, yeah. with the recession deeply engrained over there, can't imagine that turned out to be a good thing. shares of apple have fallen more than 15% since the stock hit a 52-week high at $705 a share back in september. now it is at $587 a share. stock down again today, even though the new ipad mini went on

sale. maybe because of that. jon fortt is live at the apple store in palo alto, california. jon? >> reporter: michelle, the question is demand for the ipad mini. the lines for this product, not as long as you would see for an iphone launch. you don't necessarily expect that. but the big play apple is making here is to expand the ipad's market. that's a key product for apple's growth. of course it is priced at $329. that's the cheapest ipad that apple has ever offered. but it is up against competition from amazon's kindle fire hd, google's nexus 7, barnes & noble's nook hd. all of those around $200. the question is can this power apple through the holiday season, continue their growth acceleration despite the fact that this product is lower margin than others in apple's lineup. that's the cause of apple bringing down expectations for gross martin in the holiday quarter. piper jaffray's gene munster expects and toll do between 1

and 1.5 million units on the apple mini over this launch this weekend. i'm hearing anything at or above 10 million units of the ipad mini for the holiday quarter overall would be gate. but as we're seeing right now, as of this first launch day, it is not clear what demand really is. of course in new york which is still struggling to recover from sandy, we didn't see those long lines. but here we have about 50 to 75 people. we'll see how it goes throughout the weekend. >> thank you so much, jon fortt. rough day for gold as well, having its worst day in months dropping below $1,700 per ounce. nymex set to close in a few minutes. we'll hit the floor. and a place where they're charging vacation time if sandy made workers miss a few days. it is a publicly traded company. we'll have their side of the story coming up. [ male announcer ] this is steve.

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gold having its worst day in four months, dipping below

$1,700. prices closing rights now. sharon epperson tracking the action at the nymex. what's the issue, sharon? >> traders says it is more than fearso fearso fearsome friday that is taking gold prices down. the low of the session, $1,675 an ounce. that looks tonight closing price here. that fact we're seeing this sharp slide has a lot to do with the relative strength we are seeing in the dollar. after positive factory orders that we got, the jobs report also strengthening the dollar and causing a lot of trader to wonder if we really will see stimulus action taken effectively. also of course we have the election on tuesday and once that uncertainty passes, if there's still a lack of risk appeti appetite, traders say we could see much lower prices. look for $1,670, the 200-day moving average as the next key support level. let's get to trader action here at the nyse as well. bob pisani joins me on the floor. >> i think sharon's got it

right. two reasons people are citing for the lack of energy we have potentially today, sitting near lows. the first is a slightly political spin. that is the extent of the jobs report makes the pofblt president obama getting elected a little bit more likely. that means sell the winners, capital gains taxes may be going up. that's been cited by traders. but i think sharon is right, it is the dollar moving up. we are at a two-month high. when that happens you tend to get pressure on a lot of different sectors in the market. if you look on the downside what's leading the market to the downside, they are the two most dollar sensitive sectors in the market, material stocks and energy. that's because these are all commodity bases and they get impacted by the movie on the dollar here. if you look at what's most active at the exchange traded funds, i'd pay a lot of attention to volume in the big exchange traded funds. tracked about 100 of them at a time. these have the heaviest volume. look. silver, gold, gold stocks, as well as some other ones that are in the overall materials index.

that tells me that this is a lot of this decline is dollar related. >> got it. bob pisani, thanks so much. now over to the nasdaq, seema mody following the big movers there. >> quick look at a large cap tech stocks and how they are trading. apple in focus with the ipad mini hitting store shells. stock has been hovering around a 200-day moving average very close to entering bear market territory. travel stocks gaining altitude despite worries around europe. tripadvisor, priceline posting results better than expected. that's good news. now to scott wapner with a "market flash" for us. >> watching pitney bowes today out with earnings. obviously earnings continue to come in. this company missed estimates hurt by -- just like we said last time with avis, weakness over in europe. the stock move today, it is down 14%. ouch. michelle? >> ouch, it is. wapner, thank you. to the bond market.

mr. sap te mr. santelli, track being the latest on the jobs reports. >> we used to have an s-curve on the drive. but look at these intraday one-week charts. you look at a five-year, after the data it zoomed lower. now down on the day, four basis points on the week. 10-year is basically unchanged on the day but still down a couple of basis points on the week. everybody is right on the dollar index. the intraday zooming, up a half cent on the week. remember all those days over the last five weeks we talked about 80? where do you think the buy stops were? above 80. that's certainly given it a big tailwind to the upside. become to you. >> we were just talking about it with pisani an sharon epperson, impact on the commodities and a lot of certain stocks down here. the nfl and nba each pledging $1 million to help in hurricane

sandy relief efforts. zynga creating a donation webpage. and the networks of nbc hosting its telethon tonight to raise money. as donations begin to come in, we'll discuss how a charity best distributes the money after a disaster. also how to prevent fraud. presenting androgel 1.62%. both are used to treat men with low testosterone. androgel 1.62% is from the makers of the number one prescribed testosterone replacement therapy. it raises your testosterone levels, and... is concentrated, so you could use less gel. and with androgel 1.62%, you can save on your monthly prescription. [ male announcer ] dosing and application sites between these products differ. women and children should avoid contact with application sites.

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if you are looking for a way to help people hurt by hurricane sandy, the networks of nbc universal are hosting a special one-hour telethon tonight. matt lauer will host.

sting, bon jovi, bruce springsteen all stopping by. money collected will be donated to the the american red cross efforts. wealth editor robert frank is here with more. robert, a little trickier this time for some. right? >> indeed, thanks, michelle. after disasters like katrina, haiti and the asian tsunami, the wealthy rode to the rescue. they wrote those big checks to charities. they gave their time, their expertise and even their private jets. but with sandy we have yet to see these big checks from the wealthy. why? well, charity experts tell me that many of the wealthy are still digging out themselves. some of the most expensive neighborhoods in the country were hit by sandy and they still don't have power or water. also, it's early. wealthy donors don't want to duplicate efforts of the government, they don't want to send water to staten island if the coast guard is already there, for instance. they do want to figure out longer term needs, whether that's better evacuation systems, help for the elderly or taking a closer look as many are

now at climate change. meanwhile, companies are also stepping up. jpmorgan is giving $5 million. disney's giving $2 million. fedex, toyota, viacom are all now among the biggest donors and that list is growing. one advisor told me mega checks from the wealthy will come, they always do. back to you, michelle. >> i'll take it, robert. we're going to dive a little bit deeper now into the business of charities. best ways to collect and distribute money after a disaster like the one the east coast has gone through. with us, ken burger, president and chief executive officer of charity navigator. welcome. what does charity navigator do specifically? >> we evaluate the performance of charities. we rate them on a scale of 0 to 4 stars on their performance on finance and on governance to help people find the best charities for their dollars. >> most importantly on finance, the percent of every dollar that goes to programs as opposed to overhead or other things. >> as well as their ability to

sustain themselves. >> we're going to have a big telethon tonight. what is the record of telethons in helping after disasters like this, like katrina, after 9/11, things like that? >> well, they're mixed. on some occasions it is the charities that are collected are really good ones, strong ones. dollars can go very far. in other cases where there isn't that much expertise in how monies are distributed it is less effective. but it varies. >> now tonight's program which is going to be aired on the networks of nbc, including cnbc. you saw the roster of musicians who will play. the money is going to go to the red cross. the biggest of the relief organizations. it is a big business. how do you rate the red cross? >> they're a $3 billion operation. we give them three stars, which is good. they're strong in their finances. they're good in their oversight, governance practices and they certainly have a very good track record of assisting in disasters like this.

they are -- they have exceptional expertise when it comes to this kind of situation. >> why don't they get four stars? >> well, they're not entirely as financially efficient as we like. i think they, as many charities, have suffered in recent years and so they've had some layoffs, some challenges. but they're good. they meet industry standard for us. >> they're fine on those measures. >> yes. >> is this a time that people need to be especially wary of frauds that could crop up? >> oh, absolutely. without any other case there. this is the time when the scammers come out. there are over 1,000 new websites that have come out just within the past week. the department of justice is very concerned and points out to people this is really a time to be very careful. >> what are the telltales that somebody who knocks on my door or rings my phone may not be on the up and up. >> we would recommend first of all that you never give in those ways. there is always a danger that you're going to get ripped off.

this is a time to rely focus on charities you're familiar with, charities that have a track record. if you're unfamiliar with this kind of group, come to websites like ours. it is really not a time for a new start-up because you just can't know for certain whether it's valid or not. it is a very important time to go to places that are known with a track record. >> how does the money get dispersed ultimately? if the money from tonight's telethon goes initially to the red cross, how do we know that that money is earmarked for specifically the victims of this disaster and doesn't go into a kind of general fund to help the red cross? >> you can specify that in your donation and the red cross is particularly sensitive to that. some prior history has made them extremely sensitive to the need to focus that money where donors want it to be placed. you can specify that in your donation. >> all right. mr. berger, thank you very much. now to scott wapner for a quick "market flash."

>> cist. joe's is the company today. better than expected earnings from the company. stock is up nearly 13%. pretty sizable move. it is a real estate development company, both residential, commercial. they do land sales, industrial development as well. pretty good day for joe, tyler. >> good day for joe. thank you, scott. final stretch before election day. of course, a lot being made during the campaign about the gap between the haves and the have nots and how best to bridge that divide. our next guest has been talking about many of these -- of the so-called 0.1 percenters. mainly some big-name hedge fund managers on wall street who are not shy about voicing their opinions on both candidates. here now is the author of the new book, "plutocrat."

robert frank is here and michelle will join in on our conversation. nice to see you again. is the thesis of your book, as you understand it, that basically the wealthy are getting the government they bought and that that is deleterious not just to the social fabric but people who aren't paying for the government that they bought? >> well, that's a little bit of what i talk about. but really actually i'm talking also about a deeper, broader, and i think sort of harder to deal with issue, which actually robert has written a lot about as well, which is, my core point is, we are living through a time of profound economic change. i think it is comparable to the industrial revolution. globalization, the technology revolution, and the result of that profound economic transition is, you have this winner-take-all phenomenon where the very, very top is doing

extremely well, but you're seeing a hollowing out of the middle class. that's kind of the core point that i make in my book. and then i go on to argue, when you have this extreme disparity in wealth, inevitably that translates into a disparity in political voice. and so the people at the very, very top who are pulling so far away from the rest of us really are increasingly able, not because they're mall shus -- this is not about a conspiracy -- >> is it the wealthy's fault? it sounds like what you're trying to say is that the wealthy should be blamed for that wealth disparity. >> no. actually, i don't argue that at all in my book, tyler. i think there are a lot of different forces going on, but where actually my book -- >> i don't buy your premise. when i look at the world today, hundreds of millions of people have emerged from poverty. they've emerged from poverty in india. and in china.

and in different places in the world where they've embraced capitalism. is there greater -- hold on. is there greater wealth disparity in yes, there is. but disparity is the tradeoff you accept for growth. if you want no income disparity, we've seen that movie. everybody's poor. >> well, actually, i actually think that a big part of what's going on is what's happening in the emerging markets and you're absolutely right, that part of the global tradeoff that we're seeing right now is hundreds of millions of people coming up from poverty in the emerging markets in to the middle class. but right now -- and this is not something that needs to be debated. this is something that the data shows -- the big losers where we're seeing the hollowing out is in the middle class, in the western industrialized economy. you know, again, i think the industrial revolution is a great comparison. overall, it was fantastic that we had the industrial revolution. who would argue with that?

but, but, for society to adjust to that new economic reality, to the social and political strains imposed by the industrial revolution took two world wars, communist revolutions in china and in russia, and a whole new set of political and social institutions. and my concluding argument is, we really need to be thinking about a social and political adjustment comparable to the one that we -- >> so who puts that in place? the government you say that's bought by the rich? the problem is that how do you solve that? the rich always get control of the government. right? that's why government needs to be as small as possible. the bigger it gets, the more it gets bought. that's the problem. >> actually, i strongly disagree with that. that's a real -- >> that's the premise of your book. >> no, no. that's a counsel of despair to say the government is always going to be controlled and captured by the rich.

i think the government can actually be controlled by democratic majorities. think that council of despair is one reason why american society overall is not stepping up to the challenge of our economic times. >> let me bring in robert frank, our wealth editor, for a question. thought? comment? >> thanks. congratulations on the book. >> thank you. >> just a quick question. the discussion on inequality often ends with the tax debate, for better or worse, whether it's robert reich, the other robert frank, all the books recently on inequality, they steer us towards the ultimate debate -- how much should be wealthy be taxed. if we're going to mitigate these global forces that you are talking about, then government, according to this argument, have to raise taxes on the welththy. what's an appropriate rate in your view for the wealthy in america? should they pay more? >> if i can go back to the beginning of your question because i really agree with that, that what we're seeing is i think these profound economic forces and then governments in our societies can either

mitigate them or lean into them. the paradox of america is, even if you have had the underlying economy lead to this greater wealth disparity, you actually have taxes at the very top and on the particular kinds of income that the wealthy tend to earn fall. so, yeah -- >> what's a good number? 45%? 50%? >> my book isn't about policy recommendations, robert. >> all right. we'll leave it there. michelle? we got the last read on the jobs report before tuesday's election. who is it going to help the most? president obama or governor romney. plus, while the new york boroughs like staten island struggle without power after hurricane sandy, the city is getting ready to hold a marathon this weekend. good idea? or wasted use of resources that could be deployed somewhere else. we discuss right after the break. when you take a closer l.

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a lot to talk about today. time for the power rundown. we could redo that last discussion on a little small topic op inequality. but why not? let's go to the final employment report for tuesday's presidential election. what does it mean for president obama on the one hand, governor romney in the final campaign for votes? michelle, you first. >> well, i have to laugh when people say, oh, the number out today helps president obama because it was a good employment number. it's only a good employment number in the context of a really humdrum economy. that's still a stinky number at this stage in the so-called recovery. so i'm not sure it really helps anybody or hurts anybody at this point. it has been really, really bad, or really, really good. it might have done something for somebody but this is just pure oatmealy. >> i agree, if there are any

undecided voters out there, they probably don't even know there is an election on tuesday. i can't imagine this would change anyone's mind at this point. 12 million americans out of work. still really tough economy. all voters know that. >> i say both sides get exactly what they want here. president can cite his case and governor romney can cite his. i don't think it is any different than it was three, four, five months ago, frankly. let's talk about mayor michael bloomberg's decision to proceed with the new york marathon sunday. it is continuing to stir up controversy on concerns it is going to divert resources away from the rescue and recovery. is the backlash justified? >> don't get me started on this, tyler. i was this morning at a midtown hotel being forced to check out with my daughters and my wife. we don't have power. we don't have electricity or hot water downtown manhattan. we're being forced to check out because all the joggers were coming to the hotel. now i don't have anything against the runners themselves. i just think there are families in new york that still need hotel rooms because we don't have a place to live tonight. but the runners are getting

those rooms. i just think that's a bad allocation of resources. not just for me but for other families as well. >> michelle? >> wow, so i'm going to look really cold hearted here. i was on larry kudlow's show last night, we both interviewed mayor giuliani. we said what do you think of this move by bloomberg? we both think the exact same thing. he thinks the city can handle it and that it is good for the city. i'm going to side with giuliani. can you stay on my couch. >> the stores and restaurants that are open are full. they don't. need anymore economic stimulation. we need more stores an restaurants open. >> can you stay at my apartment, robert. >> couldn't we do it next weekend? >> 20,000 runners who are qualifying for different -- for the olympics and things like that? i mean for most people it is fun but for some people it is really serious sport. >> i'm sure it is. next olympics are in 2016. i don't think they're really qualifying for that right now, but i get your point.

this from gawker.com. madison square garden supposedly told its workers struggling to recover from hurricane sandy, get back to work or we're going to start assessing you vacation days. we asked madison square garden for a comment. we have not heard back from them. michelle, what do you think? >> i would worry about the financial health of this company. if they're so concerned about docking the pay of workers who can't get to the office? it says to me -- i find it shocking that they're not going to be understanding at this point when we are in such crisis and chaos in the city. >> robert? >> if they already weren't one of the most hated families in new york. they do provide good entertainment. their workers recently unionized in brooklyn. they said in the event you need to make a personal decision not to come to work. sandy was not a personal decision, last i checked. >> if they hadn't made so many bad contracts on isiah thomas

and all the other guys that they're still paying! we wouldn't evening having this conversation. >> those are basketball players, right? >> yeah, those are basketball players. in the next hour, more on those really dreadful lines for gasoline in the new york area. when will it be fixed? plus, another storm may be on the way. we'll be back to wrap it up in two minutes.

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with the interruptions in trading, the resumptions, some nice gains today, a bit of a sell-off after that jobs number. it's been a week to remember for everybody in manhattan. >> then there's the hurricane. >> then there was a hurricane! exactly. >> i'm curious whether we'll still be dealing with it next week. i think it is possible. >> i think there will be many parts of the region that will be affected all week long. that will do it for "power lunch." everybody who's in the storm zone, ouho